2001 DEFSA Conference

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Overview

Mapping new Territories in Design Education

The 5th National and 4th International DEFSA conference was hosted in 2001 by a group of Gauteng Education Institutions: Technikon Pretoria, Technikon Witwatersrand, University of Pretoria and Vaal Triangle Technikon as part of the first National South African Design Week. The Fourth International Conference investigated the boundaries and interface between disciplines within the conference theme:

With the support from the Department of Art, Culture, Science and Technology a design exhibition was organised parallel to the 2001 Conference. This exhibition focused on research output within design education and presents examples of value added design input into the South African community.

We hope this conference gave all delegates inspiration and opportunities to build design education bridges.

Conference Steering Committee

Amanda Venter – Chair Person (Technikon Witwatersrand)

Eric Dinkelmann – Technikon Pretoria

Hennie Reynders – University of Pretoria

Thinus Mathee – Vaal Triangle Technikon

Conference Theme

The oppositions created between developing technologies and indigenous knowledge, between an established design servicing industry and popular design, provides a powerful force for developing new models in design education.

As boundaries break down between disciplines, design education needs to be more responsive to social needs, and to technological developments, and be flexible enough to be able to rapidly adapt to changing circumstances and new challenges.

Conference sub themes

Bridging into New Territories
Forged through technological innovation and altered value systems. Emerging fields of design with the focus on multidisciplinary design activity and collaborative work between design education and industry.

Thinking Deep
Building a body of theory through research by design and the mapping of future trends in the creation and use of our built environment.

New Awareness
North meets South in a matrix of inter-related argument between the traditional disciplines of craft, art and design and with the designer caught within the apparent requirements of the generic and the specific contexts dictated by global trends and local needs.

Embracing Reality
The accountability of the designer, of design education and of industry in our relationship to the user, to each other and our role within the community.

Conference Downloads:

The three keynote speakers, Professor Olle Anderson, Professor Pamela Allara and Mr. William Harald-Wong represent diverse design and art specialisation areas to introduce new insights for the delegates.

PROFESSOR OLLE ANDERSON (SWEDEN)

Professor Anderson is the artistic leader and Chairman of White Design –an interdisciplinary design studio in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is a senior partner in White Architect’s, one of the largest architect’s practices in Europe. Olle Anderson is the President Elect of International Federation of Interior Design/Architects as from September 2001. He is a professor of Interior Architecture and Furniture Design at the Universities of Gothenburg, Oslo and Chalmes, and the receiver of numerous design awards. He is the founder and organiser of the international and experimental WOOD workshops and currently also involved in the design and making of textiles, glass art works and conceptual art installations.

PROFESSOR PAMELA ALLARA (BOSTON)

Pamela Allara is an Associate Professor in the Fine Arts Department at Brandeis University in Waltham Massachusetts, where she teaches modern and contemporary art, the history of film and video art, and women's art. The author of Pictures of People: Alice Neel's American Portrait Gallery, she is currently a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Technikon Witwatersrand, where she is conducting research on contemporary South African art for an exhibition at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis. Her keynote address was titled: Design Feeds the Poor, and Art Historians, too!

WILLIAM HARALD-WONG (MALAYSIA)

William is the principal of William Harald-Wong & Associates, a corporate identity design consultancy based in Kuala Lumpur. Having worked on many far-flung projects, from Bali to Sydney, Mozambique to Uzbekistan, the company places a high value on local culture and beliefs, weaving them into its concepts and design where appropriate.

William also heads MOMENT Font Studio which focuses on intercultural research and documentation. Its research is aimed at traditions and beliefs throughout Southeast Asia from ancient times to the present and its findings will serve as a resource for the creation of meaningful contemporary Southeast Asian graphic design.

Moment's projects include recording the stories of elderly Balinese dancer sand musicians, and the reconstruction of lost dance pieces; documenting shamanistic ritual-performance and healing along the Malaysian/Thai border; and tracing Malay woodcarving design motifs back to the ancient Hindu/Buddhist kingdom of Langkasuka.
In Malaysia, as in other Southeast Asian nations, ancient values are being challenged by the values of mass consumption, with the threat of globalisation reducing all the richness of the region’s cultures to logos, not least because the majority of the people have a great propensity to erase the past and embrace the new and banal, equating it with being progressive and modern.

This collision of values spurs the creation of graphic design that is meaningful and vital, ideas that can reawaken our sense of place (geographical, historical, psychological, communal), push us to re-examine our own multicultural realities and reflect on the future of our past.

The 40-minute presentation explored the topics from around the region, and illustrated with works from William Harald-Wong & Associates and Moment Font Studio.

A framework for Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Technology Research

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Discipline:

Design Education Research

A framework for Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Technology Research: A cross-cultural Indo-South African research project.

The craft sector is currently one of the fastest growing industries in South Africa. It involves commercial and industrial interest in the manufacturing, marketing and design aspects. Within this proposed project we will focus on the study and development of traditional and appropriate technologies in the manufacturing processes of crafts.

Modern techniques will be adapted, adopted and incorporated with traditional technology. Research done on ground level will help to identify rural development projects, problem areas and technological innovation possibilities.

Teaching Inclusive Design

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Discipline:

Design Education Strategy

South Africa has one of the most forward thinking Constitutions in the world. Few countries have been able to define and legislate for equality in such an all-encompassing way. It is a challenge for design educators who must be aware of the likely future implications for design students, and who need to question their own views and current practice.

Designing for Disability has long been a specialism for a minority group. However, international trends are redefining it as a mainstream, user-lead concept. There is great potential for South African designers to embrace the meaning of equality for disabled people within the Constitution and use it to guide design practice.

Specialization versus generalization in design education: where to draw the line?

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Design Education Strategy

When new media and interactive design were added to the traditional graphic design curriculum at the University of Potchefstroom this year, I became keenly aware of the current complexties in the industry and the difficulties involved in teaching students a wide range of specialized skills with limited funds, limited expertise and in limited time. I certainly sensed what Lorianne Justice termed the ‘big squeeze’ when she refered to the ever expanding knowledge base that needs to be accommodated in limited time in current design curriculums (Justice 2000: 49).

Industrial Design at the University of Botswana: Designing Designers as if Botswana’s Setting Matters

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Discipline:

Design Education Strategy

The University of Botswana is proposing to introduce an undergraduate degree program in Industrial Design. It is inevitable that a new program must have local relevance while not loosing touch with the global realities. This paper discusses the need for the course, the proposed program structure and its rationale within Botswana’s social, economic and industrial setting.

The submission discusses global factors that were considered in designing the program. It also highlights the implementation plan in terms of student enrolment and their exits profile, staff, resources both existing and projected, and industry collaboration.

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Photography, Film & Multimedia

The paper focuses on the role that documentary photographs may play in indigenous knowledge research. Visual methods, or qualitative research where visual images play an integral part of the study design, have the advantage that power imbalances between the researcher and the study population are typically low in comparison to more conservative research designs, especially when the visual material is produced by the members of the study population themselves.

The paper specifically discusses methodological aspects of scenarios where

Buchanan’s Matrix: A Framework for Strategic Alliance between design and business management

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Discipline:

Media & Communications Design

The relationship between design and business management becomes critical when contexts change and new problems emerge. Some new problems in the design industry are a redefinition of disciplinary boundaries, new technologies and shifts in business thinking and client expectations. Design educators need to understand current demands and anticipate the future requirements of design clients when devising courses and content. This requires conceptual flexibility and continued scenario planning.

Academic Knowledge Management

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Design Education Strategy

Many corporate firms, although operating within this age of information and the knowledge economy, still rely on the skill and expertise of individuals to the extent that the ‘organisational memory’ can be severely weakened when that individual’s store of knowledge (skill, know-how, individual memory of corporate behaviour) ceases to function as an input. This highlights a parallel lack of system in organising collective and strategic knowledge - to collate and retain the most valuable and necessary units of knowledge. These circumstances will be compared to the general technikon situation, in which a related, academic, lack of knowledge management is all too evident.